Northern lights (Aurora Borealis)

Northern lights, mostly called aurora, are the fluttering lights
that can be observed in the sky over the northernmost parts of the
world. A similar light is located over the southernmost parts of the
world; it is called southern lights. Together the northern- and
southern lights are called polar lights.

The Latin word for northern lights, Aurora Borealis, was first
used in the early seventeenth century. Aurora was the goddess of
dawn, i.e. red light of dawn, in ancient
Roman mythology and Borealis means
northerly. A translation would be the northerly light of dawn. The
Latin word for southern lights is Aurora Australis, the southerly
light of dawn. Even the Northern Saami (Lappish) word for auroras, guovsahas, is
related to the light of dawn.

On the following pages you will be told, hopefully in a not too
complicated way, about auroras. You can read a little bit about why
there are auroras, how different auroras can look, some history and
something about research on auroras.

For those who are interested there is a page with tips about how
to see auroras.

You will find that some of the words in the text are green. This
means that they can be found in the enclosed dictionary. A link to
the dictionary is found at the top and bottom of each page.

The pictures in the text are very small, since the pages should be
easy to download. If you want a larger picture just click on the one
desired.